Poland holds unenviable position as EU's worst for bathing water quality

Poland was identified as the EU country with the lowest percentage of bathing sites achieving 'excellent water quality,' as indicated by a joint report from the European Environment Agency and the European Commission.

Cyprus boasts the highest percentage of bathing sites with "excellent water quality." Poland ranked last in the European Union in this ranking, surpassing only Albania, which is outside the Community, according to a report by the European Environment Agency and the European Commission.

Nataliya Vaitkevich/Pexels.com/CC0

The 2023 report on European bathing water quality included EU member states, Albania, and Switzerland.

It revealed that the majority of bathing sites met the highest EU standards, with 85.4% rated as 'excellent' and only 1.5% as 'poor.'

Coastal waters generally had better quality than inland waters, with 89% of coastal sites rated excellent compared to 79% of inland sites.

We've excellent news to share just in time for summer.

☑️ About 85% of the bathing water sites in the EU meet the highest 🇪🇺 bathing quality standards.
☑️ Thanks to over 40 years of the efforts of EU countries, you can enjoy excellent bathing water quality today.

Learn more ↓

— European Commission (@EU_Commission) June 29, 2024

Cyprus led with 97.6% of its waters rated excellent, followed by Austria and Croatia. Albania and Poland had the lowest percentages of excellent sites, with Poland performing the worst among EU countries.

?￯ﾸﾏ ?￰ﾟﾇﾭ? Croatia just nabbed the top spot for the cleanest European coastal bathing water quality!
Top 3 overall, but no.1 on the coast, Croatia takes the crown again! ? The European Commission and European Environment Agency report our coastal bathing water quality as the best… pic.twitter.com/6kSQc3rnSF

— Croatia Full of life (@Croatia_hr) May 29, 2024

Hungary, Estonia, Belgium, and Romania also had lower percentages of clean sites.

The report highlighted that 406 out of Poland's 739 bathing sites were rated excellent, while 21 were rated poor.

Croatia topped the sea water cleanliness category, followed by Cyprus and Greece.

🔎Check out our interactive #EEAmapviewer to see #bathingwater quality across Europe - the data highlights where swimmers can find safe bathing sites in Europe this summer.https://t.co/jclyyv3EiV pic.twitter.com/2OAaCG0WHl

— EU EnvironmentAgency (@EUEnvironment) July 1, 2024

The report concluded that bathing is safe at most EU sites, with 96% meeting minimum quality standards, but noted ongoing surface and groundwater pollution issues.

🏊‍♂️ Heading for a swim this weekend?

Our Monitoring Officers regularly visit 451 designated bathing water sites to monitor water quality, allowing us to establish how clean the water is and where we need to focus our attention.

Check Swimfo for more: https://t.co/1uiKhnRD00 pic.twitter.com/E75sP1QfYk

— Environment Agency (@EnvAgency) May 24, 2024

Source: PAP

(mp)